Tomás MacAnna Receives Award

For decades, he has been synonymous with Dublin’s world-famous Abbey Theatre—and with Irish theater in general—winning a Tony Award and numerous other plaudits. Now, Tomás MacAnna has a new honor to his credit: a Boston College Distinguished Alumnus Award. MacAnna was presented with the award by Vice President and Special Assistant to the President William B. Neenan, SJ, at a ceremony held October 25 in Dublin, organized by the Boston College Center for Irish Programs-Dublin. Also on hand was Executive Vice President Pat Keating, Center for Irish Programs Executive Director Thomas Hachey and BC-Ireland Academic Director Michael Cronin.
In 1984, MacAnna worked with late BC Irish Studies Program co-founder Adele Dalsimer to help create the Abbey Theatre Summer Workshop, which during its 18 years brought more than 300 BC students to Dublin for academic lectures—many of them by MacAnna himself—and practical training in various aspects of theater. MacAnna was also a visiting director at BC during the 1985-86 academic year, and supervised the production of a twin bill at Robsham Theater, Cathleen ni Houlihan by William Butler Yeats and Lady Gregory, and T. H. Nally’s The Spancel of Death, a long-lost play from the 1916 Easter Rising that was rediscovered by Dalsimer.
--Thanks to the Boston College Chronicle's Sean Smith